 |
Book Review:
The Drop Edge of Yonder
By Donis Casey
Poisoned Pen Press, hardcover, $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-59058-446-0
In the year 1914 in a little town in Oklahoma, a group
of young people were taking a ride when they spotted a
beehive. They stopped in an attempt to gather honey
from the hive and a shot rang out, killing one. The victim's
fiancée was abducted and later found in a state of
hysteria. Young Mary's scalp was creased by a bullet
and she was unconscious. Thus, the beginning of a
simple tale, recounting an event which led up to the
incident.
In this, the author's third novel, set in small farms
and towns in Oklahoma, Alafair Tucker, mother to 12
children including Mary, shows true grit in trying to
protect her family and seeking answers to the crime.
Meanwhile Mary has to emerge from the fog she is in
and recount past stories bit by bit to come up with
the clues to identify the killer. She writes in her
journal, recounting stories told at the Fourth of July
celebration. With each entry more disclosures are
told in the novel.
Descriptions of the new state of Oklahoma and life at
the turn of the 20th century are real, and the
language spoken is authentic frontier-speak. Life, as
it was lived at the time, is described with all the
hardship and primitiveness that existed at the start
of World War I out in the West. If this novel is any
indication, maybe we should go back and look at the
previous two entries, which we missed.
Recommended.
Review by THEODORE FEIT
©2007 Lorie Ham. All rights reserved.
|
|
